Emerald City Nails!

Not only is it the Pantone color of the year, but it's also the color of the most fantastical city in all of Oz. I'm talking about emerald, of course!

In a couple hours I'm going with some friends to see Oz the Great and Powerful and I thought I'd do something fun with my nails.

Please excuse the bad glitter clean-up. That stuff is stubborn! 

I started with my Colorstay Gel-Smooth Base Coat, then applied one coat of Wild Cactus by Color Club. After that dried I used Sinful Colors Call You Later from the Almost Famous collection all over and let that mostly dry. I then dabbed Milani One Coat Glitter in Gold Glitz onto the tips and faded it down toward the middle, applied top coat, and voila! Emerald City nails!

This would also be appropriate for St. Paddy's Day. Now I have to go finish getting ready. Talk to you soon!

More Sinful Colors Almost Famous Collection Swatches!

I just couldn't resist. I had to go hunt down the rest of this collection! My poor polish rack (and wallet) are suffering from all the polishes I've been accumulating lately, but how could I say no to these adorable glitters? Besides, I couldn't show you only part of the collection, could I?

Of course not! That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

On to the pictures! It was overcast and dreary all day today, so all of these pics were taken in the shade.

And now the whole collection. Keep in mind that the glitters look more opaque in real life, with the exception of Lush Life. That one's opacity is represented well here. All swatches are two coats with no top or base coat.

Fantasy: pale lilac micro-glitter with larger multi-colored circle glitter. This shade is basically In the Spotlight with a pale lilac micro-glitter base instead of seafoam.

*Super Star: blue-green micro-glitter mixed with larger purple glitter in a blue jelly base. The end effect looks like teal shimmer with scattered purple glitter when you look at it in most lights.

Show Stopping: Small holo and pale pink glitter in a clear base. This one is pretty in the sunlight! I've read from several bloggers that it's a near dupe for OPI Teenage Dream and almost an exact dupe for Sally Hanson's X-treme Wear Strobe Light. I wish I had these colors to swatch and compare!

The Lowdown: All in all, I think this is a great glitter collection. It's nice that none are from the core collection or repromoted LE shades from past collections. The formulas were a bit thick on some, but I didn't have any exceptional trouble with any of them and I didn't find myself fishing for glitter. As far as colors go, there were some with interesting combinations that I didn't have previously in my collection and they were all packed pretty well with glitter. I think most of these would be amazing over a colored base. They're definitely worth the $2 price tag and the treasure hunt that goes along with finding them (that's half the fun, right? I keep telling myself that, haha!)

*Super Star is part of the Walgreens "Almost Famous" display while Bombshell is part of Rite Aid's "Paparazzi" display. This is the only difference between the two collections.

Swatches: Sinful Colors Almost Famous Collection (pic heavy)

I am loving the Almost Famous collection! I had to drive almost 30 minutes away to get these bad boys and now I regret not snapping up the whole collection. Why, oh why must my town be notoriously bad about getting LE collections in their stores? WHY?!?!?!

And don't get me started on the fact that we don't have a Rite Aid anywhere in the state. ::mutters to self::

Moving on! Here's the display I found:

It seems the bottom row is the actual collection and someone filled in the top row with random polishes. Since I haven't seen any other displays, I can't say for sure.

I picked up 5 of the 8 available LE shades. This post is a bit pic heavy -- I needed several shots to accurately show the colors.


In the Sunlight:

In the Shade:

All of these polishes have a good formula for glitter with great coverage. All were swatched with two coats, but if you used a base color I don't think you'd need a second glitter coat at all (except possibly with Lush Life).

Star Dust: Deep purple circle micro-glitter with larger magenta circles in a sheer purple base.

Call You Later: Lime green and gold micro-glitter with larger forest green circles in a clear base. 

As a side note, it's interesting that this color is the only SC I've seen that has a cap with a smoother surface than usual and no SC on the top. I don't know if I got an oddball or what, but I just thought I'd mention it.

Lush Life: Fine and larger aqua circle glitter in a clear base. 

Poparazzi: Fine purpley-magenta glitter in a clear base.

In the Spotlight: This one is pretty interesting and it's hard to pin down the colors -- it's like my eye couldn't take it all in at once! To my eye it looks like seafoam green micro-glitter with larger aqua, yellow, hot pink, and magenta circle glitter in a barely tinted, pale seafoam base.

February Walgreens Displays

Some of the displays from different Walgreens stores in my area.

Swatches of the Sugar Rush collection coming soon! 

Swatches and review of the Toppings collection coming soon! 

See swatches of the Go Green collection here.

See Almost Famous swatches here! 

Pretty exciting month for polish lovers! I ended up adding 18 of the above polishes to my already bulging collection. Mr. Swag just rolled his eyes, haha! I'm planning on making a DIY rack that I saw on YouTube. I'll post pictures and a link to the video when I have a chance to actually make it.

Have you heard anything about the Milani Textured Creams? All the reviews I've seen on them aren't very flattering, so I skipped them this time. It's a shame too, because I was looking forward to them. I also know a lot of people were jazzed about the LE Baby Lips, but I skipped those too because I'm one of the few who are disappointed by Baby Lips in general (I can't get over the sunscreen flavor and scent. Such a bummer -- I really want to love them!)